Framework to Support Application Context and Rule Based UI-Control

Abstract

Embodiments of a method and system provide a rule based user interface control for a software application. At configuration time of an installed software application, the method may provide a design-time environment for defining a rule for a UI element to be displayed in the software application. The rule may affect a value of a property of the UI element and may be persisted in a rule engine. Then at run-time, upon receiving from the software application a request to determine the value of the property, the method may retrieve the rule from the rule engine by a runtime service, evaluate the rule to determine the value for the property and set the value for the property according to the evaluated rule. The set value for the property may be returned to the software application for displaying the UI element.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for providing rule based user interface (UI) control, comprising:
 after having developed or deployed a software application, defining a rule for a UI element, said UI element to be displayed in the software application, the rule determining a value of a property of the UI element, the property specifying the layout of the UI element,   storing the rule by a rule engine to a storage medium, the rule being stored in association with said UI element the rule was defined for,   at runtime, receiving from the software application a request to determine the value of the property of the UI element, the request being received by a rule based UI control framework,   determining the rule which has been stored in association with the UI element of the request, the determination being executed by the rule based UI control framework,   retrieving the determined rule from the storage medium by the rule engine,   retrieving said retrieved rule from the rule engine by a runtime service, the runtime service being a service which is executed at runtime of the software application,   evaluating, at runtime of the software application, the rule to determine the value of the property of the UI element, the evaluation being executed by the runtime service,   setting the value of the property according to the evaluated rule at runtime of the software application,   returning the set value of the property to the software application, and   displaying the UI element by the software application, whereby the layout of the UI element depends on the set value.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the rule engine also persists program logic, the program logic in operation controlling the UI of the application by determining the dynamic behavior, the layout and/or the position of a UI element. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the evaluating a rule comprises taking into consideration of context information, the context information comprising application parameters and/or data objects representing relevant data for business operations. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the runtime service modifies the layout of the UI by evaluating the rule, the evaluation taking into consideration application parameter values and business context values as defined in the evaluated rule. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the persisted rule is delivered to a customer as additional content of the software application, whereby no redeployment of said software application is required for updating the rules. 
     
     
         6 . A machine-readable medium storing instructions adapted to be executed by a computer to perform a method comprising:
 at configuration time of an installed software application, providing a design-time environment for defining a rule for a UI element to be displayed in the software application, the rule affecting a value of a property of the UI element,   persisting the rule in a rule engine,   at runtime, receiving from the software application a request to determine the value of the property of the UI element,   retrieving the rule from the rule engine by a runtime service,   evaluating the rule to determine the value for the property of the UI element,   set the value of the property according to the evaluated rule, and   returning the set value of the property to the software application for displaying the UI element according to the set value.   
     
     
         7 . The machine-readable medium of  claim 6 , wherein the rule engine also persist logic controlling the application UI. 
     
     
         8 . The machine-readable medium of  claim 6 , wherein the rule takes into consideration of context information, wherein the context information includes application parameters and business context available for the UI element. 
     
     
         9 . The machine-readable medium of  claim 6 , wherein design-time environment further includes functions for binding, rebinding, and/or removing the rule of the UI element. 
     
     
         10 . The machine-readable medium of  claim 6 , the runtime service modifies a layout of the UI by processing the rule, the result of the processing depending on the corresponding application parameter values and business context values as defined in the rule. 
     
     
         11 . The machine-readable medium of  claim 6 , wherein the persisted rule is delivered to a customer as additional content of the software application, whereby no redeployment of said software application is required. 
     
     
         12 . The machine-readable medium of  claim 6 , wherein the UI element is coded in a building block capable of being reused in another software application. 
     
     
         13 . A computer system comprising:
 a software application to interact with users, the application containing a user interface represented by a view, the view being rendered by a view modifier, the view modifier visualizing the software application during runtime,   a rule based UI control framework being interoperable with the software application, the rule based UI control framework containing a design-time configuration tool and a runtime service, wherein the design-time configuration tool helps a user to create, at a design-time, rules for UI elements in the view, the design-time configuration tool including a panel displaying a hierarchy of application configuration variants, each application configuration variant comprising configuration information of UI elements, the design-time configuration tool also including a window for creating rules and assigning each created rule to a user-selected UI element of the hierarchy, the design-time being a time that the software application has been developed or deployed, but not the time that the software application is still under development, wherein the view modifier of the application sends, before displaying the view, a list of UI elements to be displayed in the view to the runtime service, wherein the runtime service retrieves and evaluates the rules to determine, at run time of the software application, values for properties of the UI elements to be displayed, each property specifying the layout of an UI element, the view being rendered by the view modifier according to the values for the UI elements' properties determined by the runtime service, and   a rule engine to persist the rules created by the design-time configuration tool.   
     
     
         14 . The computer system of  claim 13 , wherein the software application is implemented according to a model view controller design pattern, and each of the UI elements is coded in a building block capable of being reused in another software application. 
     
     
         15 . A method for providing rule based user interface (UI) control for a software application, comprising:
 receiving from the software application a request to determine a value of a property of a UI element of the software application, the property specifying the layout of said UI element,   identifying a rule having been stored by a rule engine in a storage medium in association with said UI element,   retrieving, by the rule engine, the rule having been stored in association with said UI element,   retrieving the rule from the rule engine by a runtime service, the runtime service being a service executed at runtime of the application,   evaluating the rule to determine the value of the property of the UI element,   setting the value of the property according to the evaluated rule, and   returning the set value of the property to the software application for displaying the UI element according to the set value.